Attorney general sues Tiguas over bingo

The Tiguas say the Attorney General’s Office must show that bingo is illegal under Texas law if it wants to stop the games, including at Speaking Rock Entertainment Center.(Photo: El Paso Times file)Buy Photo

AUSTIN — The Texas Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday again asked that El Paso’s Tigua Indians be held in contempt of court. It also is asking that state investigators be allowed onto Tigua lands even if the tribe doesn’t want them there.

This time, it’s bingo games offered by the tribe that are causing the contention.

Largely basing its arguments on a story last month in the El Paso Times, Wednesday’s motion said that by offering bingo and related games, the tribe is violating a 2002 prohibition.

A court in 2002 enjoined the tribe from “conducting any gambling game from which any person or party enjoined herein is likely to receive any economic benefit other than personal winnings, including, but not limited to: 1. Bingo or any variation thereof; 2. Scratch tickets, peel tickets, or pull tabs; 5. Slot Machines; 6. Poker card games.”

The state's motion says, “In remarkable defiance of those rulings and this court’s permanent injunction prohibiting the Pueblo from engaging in gambling activities that violate Texas law, the Pueblo are currently engaging in various forms of bingo — including fully automated electronic bingo — prohibited in Texas.”

The suit seeks not only to hold the tribe responsible. It also wants Gov. Carlos Hisa, Lt. Gov. Christopher Gomez and the tribal council personally held in contempt. In addition, the state is seeking monetary penalties.

Tigua attorney Dolph Barnhouse said he was puzzled by the action and how it was filed.

“With no more than what they read in a newspaper article, they’ve filed a whole new lawsuit,” he said.

A spokeswoman with the Attorney General’s Office couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The Tiguas have been in epic litigation with the Texas Attorney General’s Office over gambling, which is a source of revenue for the tribe. In June, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone ordered the tribe to remove sweepstakes machines it had been operating at its entertainment centers.

The Tiguas and the Alabama Coushatta tribe of East Texas have been arguing that letters written by U.S. Interior Department officials last year mean they’re subject to a 1988 federal law that allows them to offer Class II gambling under the supervision of the National Indian Gaming Commission.

The courts, however, have disagreed, saying they are subject to the 1987 Restoration Act, in which the federal government recognized the tribes — and ordered them to obey Texas law when it comes to gambling.

The Alabama Coushattas tried to test the issue, opening an alcohol-free facility near Livingston that offers Class II games. The Texas attorney general is in federal court in that part of the state, seeking to have the tribe fined $10,000 a day.

While the attorney general’s motion against the Tiguas says the tribe is offering “fully automated electronic bingo,” Barnhouse insists the tribe is only offering old-style bingo along with electronic card minders and lottery-style pull tabs.

“We’re doing very different things,” he said, contrasting the Tiguas’ activities with those of the Coushattas.

Barnhouse also argues that since bingo is legal under Texas law, it’s not a violation of the Restoration Act for the Tiguas to offer it. While the Texas Lottery Commission regulates bingo elsewhere in the state, the Tiguas would be regulated by federal authorities because it’s a sovereign tribe, Barnhouse has said.

The attorney general has disagreed.

“This Motion turns on the question of whether the Pueblo Defendants’ current bingo operations violate Texas law,” Wednesday’s motion says. “The payment of cash consideration into a game of chance which produces cash prizes is an illegal lottery under Texas law.”

Earlier in the litigation, the tribe argued that state police entities had no right to enter their land without permission to conduct their investigations. Cardone agreed, but said the tribe must clearly notify the attorney general and police agencies of that requirement.

Based on the Times’ story, the Attorney General's Office is asking the court to force the Tiguas to allow its investigators back onto Tigua lands.

“Movant Texas seeks an Order from this Court requiring the Pueblo defendants to permit a physical inspection of premises, and if gambling is confirmed by operation of the games, to cease all gambling at Speaking Rock Entertainment Center, and to remove all illegal gambling devices, and to provide for any further equitable relief to which it may show itself entitled,” the motion says.

Barnhouse said the tribe refused to voluntarily let state agents inspect the entertainment centers.